Concussion Check
by bostonrainbow825
Summary: Rizzles-ish bit of fun, Jane has suffered a concussion and a little hilarity ensues as Maura tries to look after her. Short, no context to specific point in the series


Disclaimer: All original property is not owned by us and we do not infer that any characters, creations or the concept of 'Rizzoli & Isles' are our property and the following fan fiction has been written purely for entertainment purposes only.

Concussion Check

Glancing at the clock on the bedside table in the guest room, Maura confirmed to herself what she already knew... it was late. Of course it was, after all the Homicide team hadn't cornered its latest suspect in the double homicide they were working until just before nine. Meaning the fight that had started between Jane, Frost and the suspect hadn't happened until then, and considering that after taking a rather splintered 2x4 to the head the tall brunette had been forced by the paramedics to go to the hospital to be checked out, Maura knew they were lucky that it was half past three in the morning and Jane was released.

She'd wanted to be at the hospital but the new body at the scene of the apprehension had prevented her from going. Luckily Angela had been more than happy to pick up her injured daughter and under the ME's instruction brought her back to her house so that the necessary concussion protocols could be done through the rest of the night. The older Rizzoli had taken the first shift, but when Maura had finally arrived home a short time ago, she'd convinced her permanent house guest to go get a few hours sleep as she was indeed to high strung after the nights events to even consider resting yet.

For some reason when she'd come into the room, Maura hadn't slipped into the chair that Angela had pulled next to the bed for the purpose of watching her daughter. Instead she'd perched on the edge of the bed next to Jane, using the fact she was lying on her right side exposing the bandage on her left temple to get a good look at the wound herself.

Jane had stirred a little when she'd softly explained who it was and what she was doing, but then the tall Detective had seemed just to curl her legs and body around Maura's hip a little closer and allow her to lift up one edge of the barely held down bandage to inspect the line of careful stitches.

She was at least pleased with the job the Emergency doctor had done, the careful tiny stitches were such that she was hopeful that they wouldn't leave a noticeable scar. Jane had enough scars, and the last thing that the blonde wanted was one on the Detective's face that would forever remind her of the moment that a suspect hid in a blind corner and tried to use a 2x4 to make a home run with her skull.

After checking the wound Maura had intended on slipping into the chair and keeping sentry over the sleeping woman until the next time it was necessary to wake her up and run through the concussion protocol questions but the way that Jane had curled into her made it hard to pull herself away.

For some reason dressed in only a BPD athletics t-shirt and a pair of jogging pants Jane looked small and vulnerable tonight. She knew it was just the left over panic and concern when she'd been advised that the Detective was injured but that didn't diminish the feeling. She felt protective and wanted to be sure that Jane wasn't feeling abandoned or alone. She understood that at times like this, times of new trauma, it was easy for a confused or otherwise impaired mind to revert to old memories, old nightmares and she hoped a little naively that her presence might keep those enemies at bay.

She'd been caught up in her own thoughts, her own worries and concerns for the Detective when suddenly she felt Jane's hand take a path around the silk of her top across her side to slide against the material of the dark designer dress pants she was wearing and rest on her thigh.

"Jane?" She asked in a soft whisper and wasn't really surprised when she didn't get any response other than a sleepy noise from the brunette, whose hand then flexed involuntarily against her leg once then twice before it settled again. She smiled down at her friend lovingly and put her hand over the one on her leg. "I'm here you're safe." She continued to whisper not even letting herself notice when the detective's hand flexed a few more times, instead concentrating on making an internal checklist of things she still had to do at work in the morning to prepare the evidence in the case.

She was just making a sub list of tests she wanted to run when she was surprised enough to jump when the hand that had been innocently flexing against her leg suddenly curled further towards the inside of her thigh and made a scratching motion against her pant leg.

"That's not going to help your itch." She whispered with a laugh as Jane repeated the move a second time, the brunette's nose flexing a little as she slept.

But then in an instant the 'humour' of the situation was gone as Jane's hand not only curled further to the inside of her leg but rather boldly pressed up against the apex of her hips and gave an unsubtle rub against the central seam of her pants.

"Jane..." Maura couldn't help but jump, not that the pressure of the sensation was unpleasant, no more because of the exact opposite. The pressure had instantly caused a bolt of arousal to move through the sensitive area and considering that Jane was completely asleep and unaware what she was doing she felt instantly responsible and guilty. "Jane... concussion check." She tried to cover when she saw her initial reaction had caused Jane to startle awake, she skillfully moved Jane's hand away from where it was planted at the same time before the brunette could become aware of what she was doing. It had been in her lap she could explain, she'd been holding it to comfort herself, she would continue if she had to because she knew Jane wouldn't like the inference she was doing it for Jane's sake.

"What is that exactly?" Jane scrunched up her face slightly, stopping when she remembered just how much it hurt. "You're checking my concussion is fine? That it's settled nicely into its new abode in my skull? Or you're checking that I'm my usual cranky self when woken up every half an hour? Because either way I don't think I understand it." The detective groaned. "Go on hit me with the questions, they can't be worse that Ma's last two."

"They are supposed to be standard lucidity questions." Maura frowned not sure why Angela would have felt the need to go off protocol. "What day is it?"

"Mr. Wobble the Goldfish's birthday."

"Jane." Maura's voice showed how not amused she was. "I know you don't take this seriously, but it is important to assure as the swelling from your head injury reaches its height that you're not experiencing any neurological impairments. What day is it?"

"Thursday." Jane answered less flippantly.

"Where are you?" Maura continued hoping to get through the brief set of questions without Jane reverting back to 'cranky'.

"Mrs. Cranky's itchy bus." Jane stretched out one leg and lazily itched her knee. "Which is parked at your house."

"And what is the colour of my car?" Maura asked the more obtuse question.

"The one you own or the fantasy one you want to be driven off in by Albert Einstein and Madam Curie's love child."

"Both." Maura tried not to let her flippancy get to her and played along slightly.

"Car colour." Jane shifted slightly and sat up, groaning at the change in elevation. "I have to pee."

"Come on then let me help you, and you can tell your nice self to thank your cranky self but you're staying on half hour checks for another few hours." Maura pushed up and offered her arm.

"My nice self hates my cranky self." Jane pouted slightly wobbling a little as she got to her feet. "I itch, why do I itch."

"Did they give you morphine at the hospital?" Maura asked linking her arm around Jane's back and using the other to take one of her hands to guide her towards the en suite. "Because if they did it often makes people itchy."

"They gave me something." Jane used her free hand to scratch at her thigh through the sweats. "You know we could say we did the check thing and not do it." Jane tried a winning smile on Maura.

"That may have worked before you knew me but it's not going to work now." Maura shook her head. "You have a serious head injury, we have to take it serious and do the proper monitoring to ensure you don't have any more serious complications." She frowned. "Memory loss, balance issues... in fact people who suffer severe repetitive concussions are being proven in studies to suffer from neurological scarring and impairments later in life."

"I used to bang my head all the time when I was a kid, I have two brothers, who do you think taught them to rough house and play football?" Jane tapped her own chest.

"All of which occurred at a time when science wasn't aware of the significance even a low grade concussion could have. You fundamentally just proved my point as to why serious blows like this one have to be treated with care and concern, like staying to the concussion protocols." Maura led her through to the toilet. "I know you're going to give me grumpy face, but do you need help?"

"Maur I haven't needed 'help' since I was two." Jane shook her head and lightly pushed at Maura's hands. "Go, out, perv..." She smirked patting at the blonde's hands. "All you medical people are the same, weird freaks who just want to know about peoples bathroom habits." She grinned.

"Believe it or not Jane Rizzoli..." Maura playfully stalked outside pulling the door only half close behind her. "What you do or what in fact you don't do while you are in the bathroom is not something I dwell on." She leaned against the wall. "I was merely addressing your near pathological fear of asking someone to help you when you need it."

"Well if I was a man and was in danger of missing and peeing on the floor I might, no, I would have just sat down and pushed it between... but that's not the point.." She called loudly, not having the where with all to soften the 'after thought'. "I just mean it's not like peeing is hard, or that a head injury is debilitating. When I shot myself, that was debilitating." She pointed out. "And I still peed."

"It's not the act of urinating I anticipate might cause issues." Maura out of sight rolled her eyes, remembering how hard it had been at the hospital to convince Jane she had to use a bed pan and couldn't get out of bed to go to the toilet herself in the early weeks. "It's more the changes in cranial elevation."

"I promise not to stick my head up my ass." Jane's reply came with a chuckle from the detective and then a curse and the sound of a clunk and then of breaking glass. Maura instantly pushed back into the bathroom, worry filling her face as she focused immediately on the brunette.

"Did you like that vase?" Jane pointed to the small crystal bud vase that had been on the toilet back, filled with scented wax beads.

"No, of course not." Maura sighed happy at least the brunette was seated and not on the floor having re-hurt herself. "I banished it here to the guest bathroom and filled it with vanilla and orange scented wax diffusion pearls so that I could punish it for being so hideous." She bent down carefully and began to put the pieces of glass into the small trash can nearby. "Your punishment is you have to pee while I clean this up."

"I got dizzy." Jane pouted. "There was suddenly three toilets to choose from." She pushed her hands into the little 'pouch' that her slightly pulled down sweats had made near her knees. "Don't look, pick up pearls. And hum so you don't hear."

"Really?" Maura looked up directly at her and then seeing Jane's look of disgust at the move put up her hand and looked down again. "Fine, fine... I've see x-rays of your insides, held your stomach together when you shot yourself but heaven forbid if I hear you urinate." She gave a huff and began to hum a classical piece she had been listening too in the car on the way home.

Timidly Jane shifted a little on the seat and then pulled in a quick breath through her nose.

"You know maybe I don't need to pee."

"Yes you do." Maura huffed and stood up. "I'll get the rest of them in a minute just be careful when you stand up." She swept them away from Jane's feet, though most of them had landed in the space between the toilet and the bathtub away from where the brunette would have to walk. As she stepped towards the door she reached out and flicked the tap on. "Child." She chuckled under her breath.

"I have a shy bladder." Jane called loudly, pouting more.

"The same shy bladder that let you pee in the alley behind the Robber that night the line was too long?" Maura called back with another chuckle.

"No that was a different bladder." Jane grumbled, relaxing her body as Maura left, to do what she needed. "Why don't I just go over and sleep on Ma's couch, you need to go to bed Maur." Jane continued talking still on the idea of getting out of the protocol.

"Because I specifically sent Angela home to get some rest, and you are not convincing me to stop the protocol." Maura saw through the attempt easily. "You're going to urinate, wash your hands, we're getting you back in bed and you have another 30 minutes to rest before I wake you up again."

"And when are you going to rest?" Jane turned the question back at her. "When 6am rolls around are you going to be okay with both of us just riding into work together?"

"Detective Rizzoli is not going to work tomorrow." Maura phrased it as directly as she could. "And I've done longer stints without sleep then this, I'll catch up tomorrow night it's fine."

"Why don't you come to bed with me, set an alarm?" Jane offered.

"See a much more reasonable attempt, that I might agree too." Maura gave in a little. "Considering you haven't been vomiting or severely disorientated I might even agree to a whole hour if you promise to stop complaining about the protocol."

"I swear I will not complain for about an hour." Jane offered with a soft chuckle, the sound of the flush coming a little before the sound of the tap being shut off and the door being pushed all the way open. "I'd feel better if you were resting too." Jane's voice softened.

"I'll try." Maura offered holding out her arm again and began to guide her back towards the bed. Getting the tall woman first sat down and then laid back down before she walked around to the other side, taking out her phone to set an alarm for a hour later. "I'm not falling asleep until you do though. I don't trust you to not go downstairs and try to get a beer or something."

"Funny." Jane smiled. "It hurts." She pointed to the large bandage, relaxing into the bed. "I'm happy here." She stretched out her legs. "I like this bed."

"I'm glad, you spend the most time in it." Maura smiled back at her shifting to lay down on the side that meant Jane was turned it with the bandage not on the pillow to aggravate the cut but also why they talked they could look at each other easily. "And it's bound to hurt, I've have the 2x4 in my lab, very impressive that he didn't manage to take your head off Detective."

"Now that would have been messy." Jane gave a grimace. "Would you try and graft it back?"

"I would try to do anything I could to keep you alive, I promise." Maura frowned at the idea, knowing that there had been a real possibility that the suspect could have given her more than a few stitches and a mild concussion. "And then kill you for putting me through that."

"That would be a waste doctor." Jane smiled at her. "Okay so I have an hour right, but that doesn't officially start till I fall asleep again does it?"

"Yes you have an hour, no the hour has already started to countdown, asleep or not." Maura shook her head. "So close your eyes and try to rest for as much of it as you can before I ask you more stupid questions."

"I think you're biased as a counter." Jane leaned a little closer and reached her arm across her own body and just let the tips of her fingers touch Maura's arm as she closed her eye's. "I think there should be time added on, like stoppage time for fouls or misdemeanors."

"Concussions are not a sport." Maura laughed softly letting her tone drop a notch. "I'll see how long it takes you to fall back asleep and I might adjust then, that's the best your going to get."

"I'll take it." Jane closed her eyes. "Have fun reading a medical journal." She teased softly.

"I didn't bring one." Maura laughed back gently. "I'm making mental lists of things I need to do tomorrow." She teased back.

"What you going to do for the other 45 minutes?" Jane chuckled.

"Plot ways to get back at you for making me worry." Maura assured her she had it covered.

"I like it." Jane smirked softly letting her breathing shift a little deeper

-x-

Despite herself, Maura had been making her mental lists monitoring Jane beside her for awhile after she'd slipped asleep again but her exhaustion caught up with her in the comfortable pose and she also dozed off.

It was impossible to tell right away how long she'd been asleep but it was the sudden feeling of a movement across her stomach that made her begin to wake up. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, actually as consciousness came back to her and she realized the hand belonged to Jane who had shifted over closer on the mattress too her, her body registered the level of contentment and safety the Detective's presence and touch innately caused.

At first she didn't even open her eyes, quickly figuring out from the soft strokes of the large hand that Jane was deep asleep. The deep rhythmic sound of the brunette's breathing the only thing she could hear in the room. But then again at first Jane's hand just made slight circles or sweeps on her stomach, and she let herself completely relax having almost fell asleep again when she suddenly became aware that Jane's hand had slid further up her body and was sweeping the underside of her left breast.

This time she did open her eyes, not surprised when her eyes were adjusted enough in the low light to be able to see the sleeping Detective and the innocent path of her hand.

"Let's hope you're not itchy again." She whispered with a laugh, bringing her hand up to ease Jane's back a bit further down onto her stomach again and for a long few quite moments it didn't do more than occasionally flex.

This inactivity allowed Maura to doze off again, but a second time her sleep was suddenly stopped by the strong direct feeling of Jane's hand closing over her breast and squeezing.

Hazel green eyes popped open and she immediately looked to the side to find that Jane was still asleep, even as the Detective's hand massaged and teasingly gripped her breast. She hated her own innate reaction as the attention made her nipples tighten and stiffen, and she brought her hand up to cover Jane's trying to softly deter her from continuing.

For some reason the touch of her hand on the back of Jane's elicited a sleepy moan from the brunette, her fingers curling to focus more directly on the blonde's now hypersensitive nipple. She closed her eyes for a moment not sure what she should do, after all it was a long time before she needed to wake Jane up for a concussion check but at the same time she couldn't allow the brunette to touch her like this. Especially since the brunette was asleep and unaware of what she doing, and Maura didn't doubt that Jane would be embarrassed if she knew.

"How about we go back here?" She tried to move Jane's hand down to her stomach again, but the brunette just gripped tighter as if not willing to let go of her prize. "I don't want to have to wake you up..." She groaned softly as the brunette's fingers closed around her nipple again. "Come on, please." She tried to push Jane's hand with a little more force. Frowning when she saw dark eyes suddenly snap open and be faced with equal doses of panic, pain and embarrassment.

For a moment Jane looked between Maura's eyes and her own hand before she flexed all her fingers and pulled back across the bed as far away from her best friend as she possibly could.

"You should probably..." Jane began but stopped. "I'm sorry." She looked down to the mattress. "I have no idea what just happened."

"Jane, I know exactly what happened." Maura gave a soft shake of her head. "You were in a deep sleep, you've suffered a concussion, you were probably having a dream of one sort of another and where normally you wouldn't act out things in the physical world tonight the line between sleep and conscious movement was blurred. You don't need to apologize, I was just trying to move your hand without waking you up." She explained softly.

"I don't even remember dreaming." Jane admitted with an uneven frown. "Really I'm sorry, the last thing you want is to be half groped by your concussed best friend when you're trying to do the right thing and stay up and watch her." Jane looked a little sadder still. "Perhaps you could just go and get my mother."

"Jane, please relax and look at me? Do I look concerned or upset?" Maura checked seeing that dark eyes would barely focus on her. "Please we're fine." She reached out closing her hand over the one Jane had scrunched into the bedclothes. "Are my breasts that horrible?" She tried a soft joke.

"No." Jane did finally look up at the ME meeting her eyes with a soft look. "That is I almost wish I knew." A more characteristic smile Jane smile pulled at the detective's lips.

"See that's better." Maura laughed softly. "You want another shot?" She teased pressing her chest forward jokingly trying to relieve the tension.

Jane arched her eyebrow and then smiled more.

"Thanks but, I'm good, I'd wanna be sure to remember it." She winked.

"Rain check then." Maura winked back. "We'll call it your reward for being good about your concussion checks." She reached back and checked. "Still 20 minutes until your next set of questions, do you want to get them over with and reset for another hour?"

"Sure. Same day, still at your place and you still have the same car, my name is Jane, you're Maura and you want to have a dream wedding." Jane gave a bigger smile. "Oh you have a pet tank called Bass and I'm pretty sure he weighs more than you."

"Are we throwing peanuts or rice?" Maura checked with a smile as she reset the alarm.

"Origami cranes, in rainbow colours." Jane moved a little more back into the middle of the bed and leaned on her side facing Maura. "You want to hold my hands or I don't know maybe cuff me?"

"No, I don't think either is necessary." Maura shook her head softly. "Would you feel better if we held hands till you fell asleep?" She offered both her hands out.

"How about I lean on you, so my hands are in front so I can't just molest you. You're boobs are protected by my back." The detective offered.

"You didn't molest me, but that sounds like a comfortable position." Maura corrected her but also agreed easily, knowing that selfishly she couldn't pass up the chance to hold the brunette while they slept confirming to her deepest subconsciousness that Jane was alive and okay.

"Why is it hurting more now than it was before?" Jane turned and gingerly moved back till she felt Maura's body.

"Because you jolted awake, I'm sorry that was my fault." Maura brought her arms around the brunette to help cradle her head as well as lightly cradle her body. "And it may be because the swelling has reached its zenith, so the tissue damage is at its worst and causing the nerve endings in the area to send intense signals to your brain, and as it begins to better decode those messages it is registering the full extent of the damage."

"Just tell me that tomorrow I'll feel better." Jane let her body relax as she felt the support behind her.

"You'll feel better tomorrow." Maura assured her softly, giving her a soft squeeze. "And you'll be able to focus on the fact because of your bravery and hardheadedness you caught a man responsible for three murders before he could commit a fourth."

"Score one for my gum-shoe." Jane smiled as she pulled in a soft breath and closed her eyes. "Love you Maur." She mumbled her voice heavy as almost instantly her body pulled her back into sleepiness.

"I love you Jane." Maura let herself indulge with placing a kiss into dark hair. "Just rest and let your body repair yourself."

-x-


End file.
